While conservatives and confessionals in the PCA have been rightly concerned about the homosexual intrusion in the denomination through the back door, a more insidious and dangerous enemy to the Christian faith has been ushered through the front door. That menace is Cultural Marxism under the guise of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Cultural Marxism is a dressed-up version of Liberation Theology which takes advantage of white guilt for past racism. Certainly, racism is wrong. James 2:1-7 teaches that making distinctions on the basis of personal favoritism towards the wealthy and well-dressed is judging with evil motives. But CRT goes beyond, way beyond, James 2.
CRT teaches that racism is ingrained in the American society. According to CRT, this racism is based on white privilege and white supremacy which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color in the American society. CRT is becoming mainstream thinking in the PCA now. I was sent a video on February 10, 2020 of some PCA leaders who support CRT. The video included clips of three of the past four Moderators of the PCA either espousing CRT or showing their support for it—George Robertson, Alexander Jun, and Irwin Ince. Jun acknowledged that there are those who say that CRT is Marxism, but he scoffed at that idea while stating unequivocally that he is a “Critical Race Theorist.” Scoffing at the positions of your critics is not an argument, though it is an attempt to shame them into silence.
In 1961, the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev devised a plan to destroy the US by promoting “the liberation struggles of the oppressed peoples” in the Third World.[1] Liberation Theology was the part of the plan to get churches to unwittingly promote these liberation struggles. KGB files smuggled out of the country by Vasili Mitrokhin in 1992, who had been tasked in 1972 with moving those files to a new location just outside of Moscow, clearly reveal the role that the Soviet Union played in devising and executing the liberation movements in the Third World. By 1975 KGB backed ministers dominated the World Council of Churches leadership and promoted Liberation Theology in the Western world. Mitrokhin painstakingly copied and photographed those KGB files over a number of years while hiding them at his dacha. He escaped from the Soviet Union by being hidden in the trunk of a car that was driven across the border to Norway. As a result of this treasure trove of documents, we now know definitively where Liberation Theology began. It was devised by the KGB.
Marxism has been rightly identified as a Christian heresy. Liberation Theology and Critical Race Theory are also heresies. Liberation Theology has been very effective in corrupting liberal denominations in the US, but was rejected by evangelical denominations. So, it has been repackaged as Critical Race Theory which is making dynamic inroads into evangelical denominations. “The Vancouver Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1983 condemned Western capitalism as the main source of injustice in the world, responsible for the evils of sexism, racism, ‘cultural captivity, colonialism, and neo-colonialism.’”[2] The WCC’s statement reads very much like the things that are being spread today as Critical Race Theory. Marxism is anti-Christian. Here are some differences between CRT and the Scripture:
First, CRT divides whereas the gospel unites. CRT proponents focus on the systemic components of racism within American culture due to white privilege. What is overlooked is the oppression of all other societies in the history of the world. Oppression is not limited to some whites in America. It is a historic problem wherein every race has oppressed other races at some time in history. People of color have oppressed whites also in past history. The answer to oppression is in reconciliation through Christ.
Second, CRT does not give true forgiveness, but requires continued mea culpas from those who are called out as the oppressors—in this case the white citizens of America. The rhetoric I heard from Jun and Michelle Higgins on the tape was not the message of reconciliation and forgiveness. Yet, the Scripture requires forgiveness and never limits sin to one race or only to those in authority. Ephesians 6:5-9 and Colossians 3:22-4:1 speak to the sins of both masters and slaves, giving guidance to both groups. CRT looks at only one side of the issue and looks at it wrongly.
Third, CRT focuses on the circumstances of the outer man, whereas the Scripture focuses mostly on the inner man. Christians are often oppressed and persecuted. Christ even made such persecution one of the Beatitudes. There is something more important than our outward circumstances in life. Christ, as the Suffering Servant, was “oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). I fail to see how CRT is encouraging a Christ-like demeanor under oppression which is often the best testimony to our oppressors.
Fourth, the proponents of CRT do not reference Scripture in their lectures and speeches, from what I have heard. I have seen charts. I have seen statistics. What I have not seen is Scriptural exposition from CRT proponents.
Fifth, CRT does not proclaim the gospel of redemption in Christ. Those who hold to CRT might do so, but the theory itself does not. What does it profit a person if he gains mastery over his former oppressors, but loses his soul? CRT is, therefore, substituting the social justice gospel for the gospel of God.
All of the problems in the PCA today find their nexus in Cultural Marxism. Social justice, human sexuality, racism, and women’s rights are all parts of the injustice that Liberation Theology has been supposedly fighting and which were identified as systemic problems in Western culture. Yet, the end game is not the liberation of the oppressed but the ascendancy of Marxism. The end game is the overthrow of Western culture which is founded on Judeo-Christian principles. The end game is the overthrow and oppression of evangelical denominations. Just look at the Marxist governments of the world and what they have done to the Church. Look at how the Soviet Union oppressed its citizens and the Church.
Conservatives in the PCA are focusing on same-sex attraction (which is appropriate). Meanwhile, Cultural Marxism is being ushered in the front door. There is no effective way to fight the CRT and Cultural Marxism in the PCA. The PCA will not form study committees to investigate any issue associated with CRT. There will be no charges brought against those who teach CRT—certainly not against former Moderators. Regrettably, the PCA has unwittingly capitulated in broad daylight and few people have even noticed. Homosexuality cannot be rooted out of the PCA because it is just one component of CRT. CRT is the Hydra sin which will destroy the PCA as an evangelical denomination. And the destruction of the US and Christian churches is exactly what Liberation Theology/Critical race Theory was intended to do by the Marxists who founded it.
Dewey Roberts, Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, Destin, FL
Author of:
Samuel Davies: Apostle to Virginia
Historic Christianity and the Federal Vision
[1] Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The World Was Going Our Way (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 9.
[2] Ibid., 482.
Vanguard Presbyterian Church 